I'm
Bruce Collins. I am an evangelist and teacher of the Bible. I
became a child of God by faith in the person and work of the Lord Jesus
Christ on November 24, 1963 and have tried to serve the Lord in various
capacities since then. I am presently an itinerant minister of
the Gospel. I do not work for an organization but I try to
serve the Lord in the best way that I can wherever He leads. That
means that my wife and I have our financial needs met by the Lord as we do
not have a salary from any church or organization. We believe
that the Gospel is free so we have never made a charge for our services.

I
am available for Bible studies, conferences, Gospel meetings, children's meetings
and camp work. I have traveled throughout much of the United States
and Canada in my service for the Lord. My wife helps me, and
we attend the Bethany Bible Chapel in Cedar Falls, Iowa. They have encouraged us
by commending us for this work.

My
wife, Geneva and I live in Waterloo, Iowa. We have four children.
One of them is married and has provided us with two grandchildren.

This
web site has a weekly meditation that I hope will encourage you. It
has links to literature and organizations that I think are helpful.
You can also listen to my weekly radio program here.

Hebrews 5:7-9who, in
the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications,
with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from
death, and was heard because of His godly fear,though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which
He suffered.And having been
perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey
Him.

In the Days of His Flesh

The Lord was not a superman type of man.He was an ordinary type of man.We understand that he had all the feelings and emotions of a
normal person but experienced temptations and feelings and emotions
without sinning.When it
came time to die on the cross, He agonized in anticipation of that event
in the garden of Gethsemane like a normal man.He agonized to the point that He was sweating great drops of
blood.He told His disciples
that His soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.It is my opinion that Satan was attacking Him and tried to
convince Him that it would be better to die before the cross in order to
avoid the agony that was coming.But
the Lord didn't sin.He did
however vehemently cry with tears as a normal person would.

Vehement Crying and Tears

The Bible records three times that the Lord cried.He cried over Jerusalem in Luke 19:41.Because the nation of Israel had rejected Him, the day was coming
in the not too far distant future when the city of Jerusalem would be
destroyed and the people in the city would be massacred.Titus. the Roman general, fulfilled this prophecy.The Lord knew that this judgement was coming.There can be no doubt that He caused the judgement to come after
giving the Jews the opportunity to change their minds about Him (repent)
and receive Him as their Messiah.But,
even so, He was not happy with the fact that this judgement was coming.He wept in view of it.And
I wonder if He isn't weeping today over all of those who have had
opportunity to be saved for eternity and for one reason or another have
rejected Him and His claims.Those
of us who believe in the truth of the Bible agonize over those who are
missing out on God's salvation.But
our agony is nothing compared to the agony of the Lord.He LOVED the whole world, not just the part of the world that has
accepted Him.

The Lord also cried at the grave of Lazarus in John 11.He knew that He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead but I
believe He understood and sympathized with those who had lost a loved
one.They had thought that
the Lord would come and heal His friend but He didn't.They didn't know that the Lord had something better in mind.He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead.I have often wondered how Lazarus felt about that but certainly
his sisters were happy to have him back.But while the Lord may have cried for a number of reasons, He
certainly understood in a very human way the sorrows associated with
losing a loved one.

And now He weeps in the Garden as He anticipates the Cross.He will be bullied.Psalm
22 tells us of the strong bulls of Bashan.He will be mocked.He
will be scourged.All the
while He will be declared innocent by civil judges.But all of this was necessary to fulfill Old Testament prophecies
and for Him to SUFFER the just for us the unjust.

Salvation from Death

Many
people seem to think that the cup that He wanted removed in the Garden
was death on the cross.But
He was not saved from death on the cross.However, He was saved from death according to this passage in
Hebrews.He says in the
Garden,
"My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and
watch with Me. (Matthew 26:38)."Whatever He meant by that, that is the death from which He was
delivered in this passage in Hebrews.I believe that the cup he wanted removed had to do with the
attack of Satan causing him to want death in the Garden.Angels ministered to Him because of the oppression and mental
agony that He was experiencing.His
mental suffering must have been as bad as his physical suffering.I don't think we understand how bad Satanic attack can be at
times.Thank God, we have
the Lord to encourage us when Satan goes on a mad rampage.

Experiencing Obedience

As I said earlier, the Lord was a normal man.As a normal man He experienced the cost of obedience as a result
of the Garden experience.He
didn't learn how to be obedient, but He did experience obedience and He
experienced its cost.Today
as Christians we want to be popular, successful (which means we want to
make lots of money), we want to be accepted.We don't want the reproach that comes with obedience.We have cast off many basic truths that are clearly taught in the
Bible so that we don't offend unbelievers who may visit with us in our
church meetings.The Jews
said they were worshipping Jehovah and that they were the chosen people,
yet they crucified the Messiah.Religious
people did the crucifying!I
wonder how many of us today who claim to be Christians in the United
States have followed in the footsteps of Christ and have taken unpopular
positions that please the Lord even though those positions are condemned
by those that call themselves Christians in this world.Have we "learned obedience?"